Speed Sensor Bolt Dropped Into Transmission

[jb95gst]

OK,
I think I may have a problem. I was pulling my tranny and when I took out the speedo sensor the small 10mm bolt fell into the hole that the speedo sensor goes in..... I know I should have been more careful. Does anyone know an easy way to get this out? I don't know what I need to do to get it out. I was thinking of pulling the drain plug and hoping I could see it in there and get it out. Please help me figure out a way to get this.
Thanks bigtime,
JB

 

[Defiant]

A magnetic pickup, and good luck.

 

[jb95gst]

thats what I was going to try, but there is not much room from the speedo side, i just hope it made it's way to the bottom and can go through the drain plug. *fingers crossed*
Thanks,
JB

 

[4G63 For Me]

I managed to drop a valve cover bolt into an empty spark plug well and down into a cylinder once. Probably the stupidest thing I've ever done. Anyway, I just barely managed to fish it out with a magnetic pickup back through the spark plug well.

Those things really work.

 

[bfdahl]

thats a bummer!

I would place the trans on the ground bell housing down and shake it about to get the bolt to a place that you could get it with a telescopic magnet. I have three myself

I replaced a trans once after a guy replaced his clutch and dropped the bolt in and just said F it and tryed to drive it. It blew a nice hole in the bellhousing!

 

[jb95gst]

Thats what I am hoping will work, I went to autozone and bought one of those extendy things with the magnet on the end. I am really hoping I will be able to find it, I have never opened a trans before and really don't want to right now.
Thanks,
JB

 

[FourG63 97GST]

that happened to me once, but the bolt never came back OUT the speed sensor hole, it came out the bellhousing

if you have to drop the tranny, suck it up, it will save alot of time and money in the future.
good luck

 

[jb95gst]

The tranny is out and I am not putting it back in until that bolt is out .
I am just hoping it will be easy, and I can do it myself in like 5 min, but then I will wake up and realize that will never happen with my DSM. oh well, it's a learning experience.
Thanks,
JB

Does anyone know the torque specs on the cover of the tranny.
The part of the tranny is the one discussed in this tech article: http://www.geocities.com/qwik93awd/Vfaq/shifter.htm
I pulled it off and now I don't know the torque specs for putting it back on.
Also, should I use any special RTV, or would any of them work?
Thanks,
JB

Just an update, I wsa working on getting this bolt out and after 30 minutes if trying to find it I decided to pull the outside cover off (per this article: http://www.geocities.com/qwik93awd/Vfaq/shifter.htm ), then all of a sudden the bolt decided to fall out the speedo hole. So now all is good, at leaste with concerns to this problem
Thanks again for the advise,
JB

 

[dyablo]

Well today a friend and I were droping the tranny to see what was wrong. I thought it might be a bent fork or related. Appears that the throw out bearing broke. So while putting it back together my friend droped a 10mm bolt that hold the speed sensor in place. That is he droped it into the hole where the speed sensor goes. Now what do we do? i dont want to drop the tranny again . and other then that who do i get that small bolt out again?

 

[1gcrazy]

Drop it... drain it... and use a magnet. That and put it on its side, hole down and use a magnet or use a long thin push claw...
Dont know what else to tell you besides dont let your friends do important work...?

 

[eclipsh]

Yup, I'm one of those fools. I'm not even 100% sure the bolt went into the tranny but I cannot find it anywhere else. I've been trying to fish it out from the top with a magnet but without any luck. My next step will be draining the tranny with the car tilted towards the passenger side to see if that'll get anything inside out. I'll try fishing around with a magnet from that end too once it is empty.

Otherwise I'm thinking I may pull the tranny apart on the car to get into the housing and see if anything is in there. Any thoughts on trying to pull apart the trans and reassemble it on the car? I've pulled 'em apart a few times on a bench so that doesn't scare me but I've never attempted it on the car before.

 

[empie1]

Just dropped the trans bro.Its not that hard..

 

[eclipsh]

Just dropped the trans bro.Its not that hard..

Normally I might agree but I'm busy as hell and any time I can knock off the job is huge.

 

[snowborder714]

When my brother did this on my car, we already had the trans out, but he rotated/shook/tilted/etc. the trans for a while until it finally came out. We didn't know what happened to the bolt either, but luckily it came out, otherwise we probably would've reinstalled it and screwed something up.

 

[joshs1074]

yup drop it. it can easily be done in two hours(as long as everything comes apart nicely). we did it and we were drinking. not a good idea though!

 

[Strm Trpr]

I read the title and said "Damn, that sucks"!
Fortunately the transmission is out of the car.
Give that magnetic retrieval tool a try.
With some luck it'll come out.
If that doesn't work, pull both the fill plug and drain plug and have someone help you pick it up and shake it til that screw comes tumbling out.

I wish you luck.
If worst came to worst, you can find a reputable manual trans rebuild shop that can split the cases and get that bastard of a screw out for ya?

 

[toofast82]

I wish you luck.
If worst came to worst, you can find a reputable manual trans rebuild shop that can split the cases and get that bastard of a screw out for ya?

Or you could take it apart yourself if you have to. It's not that difficult!
Check out vfaq.com

 

[eclipsh]

Let me just go ahead and quote myself here....

Otherwise I'm thinking I may pull the tranny apart on the car to get into the housing and see if anything is in there. Any thoughts on trying to pull apart the trans and reassemble it on the car? I've pulled 'em apart a few times on a bench so that doesn't scare me but I've never attempted it on the car before.

I was really just asking if anyone had pulled one apart on the car and had any input on that. Thanks for the encouragement though.

 

[toofast82]

Let me just go ahead and quote myself here....

I know, I was commenting on Strm Trpr saying to take it to a rebuild shop, not you.

I don't think it would be worth the hassle trying to do it in the car, when you can take the tranny out in less than 2hrs and once its out you can find it very easily! Probably without even having to take it apart

 

[eclipsh]

OK.

Well I tried splitting the tranny on the car and I don't recommend anyone copy me. With the bolt having dropped into by the front differential even having the tranny split in half doesn't give access to the area the bolt fell in. I fished around with a magnet for a while and still came up with nothing. Now I'm pulling out a tranny that is already half-way apart.

On the plus side I did find my 5th gear nut was loose so I can fix that issue once I put it all back together. I also found that using a cold chisel as a wedge to pop the passenger axle out is much easier than using a pry bar and didn't do any damage in the process either. For some reason 2g axles seem much harder to remove than 1g ones. I'll have to pull the exhaust and transfer case tomorrow morning and finish pulling the tranny then. Man, what a pain over one frickin' bolt.

 

[empie1]

OK.

Well I tried splitting the tranny on the car and I don't recommend anyone copy me. With the bolt having dropped into by the front differential even having the tranny split in half doesn't give access to the area the bolt fell in. I fished around with a magnet for a while and still came up with nothing. Now I'm pulling out a tranny that is already half-way apart.

On the plus side I did find my 5th gear nut was loose so I can fix that issue once I put it all back together. I also found that using a cold chisel as a wedge to pop the passenger axle out is much easier than using a pry bar and didn't do any damage in the process either. For some reason 2g axles seem much harder to remove than 1g ones. I'll have to pull the exhaust and transfer case tomorrow morning and finish pulling the tranny then. Man, what a pain over one frickin' bolt.

Exactly why you should have pulled it from the beginning as stated.The fact that you dicked around with it on probably just took you longer than if you just removed it.